


Sleeping Storm.

by BeesKneesandNoodles



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/M, Gen, Gross Medical Stuff TM, Hurt, Implied Bumblby, OW, Other, Renora, just hurt, poor nora
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:22:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28196856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeesKneesandNoodles/pseuds/BeesKneesandNoodles
Summary: I promised it.You got it.Ren finally gets to see Nora's scars.MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR V8E7!!
Relationships: Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie, Yang Xiao-Long/Blake Belladonna (implied)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 98





	Sleeping Storm.

**Author's Note:**

> https://twitter.com/tranquillostboy/status/1340102142061789185?s=20  
> I'm fucking stupid and never learn, y'all.  
> Let's roll.  
> EDIT: "blue hair and ginger eyes"   
> Proofread, kids. It will save you three tons of embarassment.

The mission had been hard on everyone.

But the whale had blown up and now Ren’s scroll was ringing.

He looked to Winter for permission. She nodded and he picked up.

_“Ren! Oh thank the stars, we’ve been trying to reach you for hours-”_

“We can’t talk for long- and before you say much, the Ace Ops and Winter are here.”

_“That… that will work for now. Are you sitting down? Yang and Jaune are there?”_

“No and yes.”

_“Sit down. Listen, when we were getting Amity it’s launch permissions, the Ace Ops showed up. Penny got locked out there with them and we were stuck behind a door and electrical barrier. I tried my best, but… It wasn’t working. Nora… She overcharged herself using the electrical grid and took down the door.”_

Ren’s throat closed up. His lips pulled into a tight line. He looked up at the Ace Ops.

_“She passed out afterward. We got her to my house and bandaged her resulting scars, but… She’s not doing well. Klein says she’s going steadily downhill and as hard as he’s worked, he hasn’t been able to stop it.”_

“I… I understand.” It was all he could think to say.

_“Get here fast. And… I assume I’m on speaker?”_

“Yeah.”

_“Ace Ops- You’re welcome in my family’s home, but it’s a truce grounds. You won’t arrest us and we won’t fight you. Understood?”_

Winter spoke up this time. “Of course, Weiss. We’ll get there as fast as possible.”

_“We’ll talk when you get here. Yang, Jaune, Ren, Oscar- take care of each other until you get here, ok?”_

“We will,” Yang assured. Jaune took his scroll and hung up for him.

Numb.

Ren knew how he felt, and that was **Numb.**

______

The flight to the Schnee Manor was tense. Ren sat there blank, Yang and Jaune glaring at the Ace Ops, and Oscar trying not to move for sake of his broken ribs. It was silent. Ren scanned the ace ops.

Harriet’s petals were red, but not about Clover anymore. She was furious with herself.

Marrow’s were blue. Blue, blue, blue with guilt. 

Elm’s were orange. Frustration.

Vine’s had gone from green to brown. Heaviness.

Winter’s were still a whirlwind. Round and round, round and round.

He put his head back down.

They landed.

Weiss and Ruby were standing outside, coffee in their hands, shifting to protect themselves from the wind landing generated.

The Ace Ops stepped out and helped everyone out. 

Ruby almost dropped her cup at the sight of poor Oscar.

 _I just want to get to Nora,_ He thought, looking at Ruby’s petals. Grey. Worry. Weiss’s were too. 

_I wonder if Nora is grey._

The thought scared him a little. Would it be the washed-out grey he saw in the rest of the world with his semblance or the light grey of worry he saw in Weiss and Ruby? 

As Weiss ushered him through the door and up the stairs, his mind wandered further. 

_What if I never see color again?_

_What if everything stays grey?_

_Will I ever see Nora’s blue eyes and ginger hair against the cloudy skies again?_

Then the door to Weiss’s room opened.

And he saw Whitley, sitting on the floor by Weiss’s bed. And a man leaning over the bed, checking on someone. And Penny in the corner, sat down on a loveseat, fixing herself up as best she could.

He turned to the bed, walked a little closer. Whitley shot up from where he was sitting. “I called him. His name is Klein. He’s a family friend.”

His vision cleared of grey. He could see normally now. _Huh. I wonder how I turn that on and off._

Ren nodded, moving past Whitely and around the bed, only to see his life-long best friend pale and feverish, hooked up to some kind of medication and a pulse oximeter. The worst, though, was the scars. He couldn’t take his eyes off them.

Angry, red scars that climbed up her arm and shoulder, spread up her neck and down her torso, and framed her face. She looked in pain. Feverish.

“Nora…”

The word escaped his lips like a prayer, a hope that maybe she would sit up and make fun of him for worrying.

She didn’t. 

He moved to her side. Klein moved out of the way.

He knelt on the floor near her head, tried to keep the tears out of his eyes. He could hear Jaune and Yang helping Oscar- or maybe Oz? -to sit in a chair Winter had grabbed. He could hear the Ace Ops shuffling over to surround Nora. He could hear Marrow’s remorseful voice by his left side, whispering, “I’m so sorry. This… this is our fault… we did this.”

He didn’t want to tear his eyes away from Nora, to see how they were all processing this. “Was…” Ren’s voice faltered. He cleared his throat and Ruby rushed Weiss and Blake over. “Was she ever alone? She… she doesn’t like being alone when she’s injured. It scares her. Reminds her too much of when we were homeless.”

Weiss was soft with her response. “For a few moments, when we found Penny and were getting Klein. Would that be okay?”

“She’d say yes. She’d grin and tell you she could take it.” He laid his head on her arm. “She’d never let her fear show.” 

Weiss nodded understandingly. “She’s strong like that.”

Winter tapped his shoulder and he stood up. Took a moment to look around.

Yang was hesitating to hug Blake. He didn’t need his semblance to see that she was scared Blake blamed her.

Jaune was sitting by Oz- he was sure it was Oz, now -and talking quietly with him.

Blake was trying to rub the tiredness away from her eyes.

Weiss was blaming herself.

Ruby was looking around warily at the Ace Ops.

Whitley was looking at Winter with something Ren could only call a mix of disappointment, disbelief, and the reality of someone’s hero not being who they hoped hitting them.

Harriet was finally brought to a dead-stop. She was silent, staying close to Elm.

Elm was stood by the bed, her hands balled in tight fists. 

Marrow had a comforting hand on his shoulder. _Thank you, Marrow._

Vine, for all his wisdom and knowledge, looked speechless. Listless. He couldn’t place a word to what he felt.

Penny had gotten up, moved to stand by them. She looked bad. It was no wonder when Winter made her sit down.

Winter, bless her heart. Winter looked ruined. She looked broken. He supposed it was something about seeing the reality of what she’d done right in front of her. Penny and Nora and Ozpin, all injured. 

And then there was Ren.

He took the seat Winter had put by Nora, just the right height that he could rest his head on her arm. “Klein, do you need her medical history?”

“That would be preferable, yes.”  
“Okay.”

____

The Ace Ops had moved to sit in a room Whitley, Weiss, Winter, and Klein had set up in record time with team RWBY and Jaune and Oscar helping Penny there to fix her up. He was alone with Nora.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. 

He regretted all the stupid fighting. All the arguing over training. All the ignorance, all the hurt, all the hiding how he felt.

Gods, how he regretted it.

He laid his head on Nora's arm,

and just cried. 

All alone,

except for his sleeping storm.


End file.
